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Episode 049
“There was . . . a mighty duel.”
“This is where the fight took place.” Everett said, as he stood
on the grassy space next to the sidewalk. Standing on the side of the
building, the two black-dressed knights seemed to go unnoticed by the
population of the tower, as they headed in and out of the building. But
all the same, the knights kept to their own business, trying to avoid
standing out as the people spared them only fast glances out of the corner
of their eyes.
“There’s not much sign of disruption.” Sydney said, looking
around. She bent over a bit, looking at bit of the pavement. “I see
where a blade hit the cement over here. And there’s some other marks.
Looks like Armand’s steel-toed boots.”
“He’s a Tae Kwon Do student.” Everett explained, his hands in
the pockets of his trench coat. In the warm weather, he seemed out of
place, even though he didn’t sweat.
“That would show in the way he moves.” Sydney said, inspecting.
She looked up at Everett. “Ledger wasn’t here, was he?” She asked.
“No. Why?” The knight asked, lowering down to where she was
looking.
“These footprints.” She said, pointing to some of the land
around the sidewalk. “These look like Ledger’s style of Kung Fu,
Shaolin I think, but their badly placed. Or, not badly placed, but he
usually fights cleaner than this. I don’t know how to explain it. These
aren’t bad or anything, he’s just better than this.”
“If it was him, it looks like he was drunk.” Everett added,
inspecting the site she was referring to.
“I didn’t think any of you guys drank.” Sydney asked, smiling
as she looked up at Everett.
“Edgar does.” Everett offered, considering the sidewalk. “I
don’t know about Roland. I know he’s been to a few keggers, but beyond
that. Who knows?”
“That’s the way most things are with Roland.” Sydney lamented
with a sigh. She turned her attention back to the fight. “Morgan
didn’t leave any tracks.”
“Did you think he would?” Everett asked.
“Well, no.” Sydney said, standing up. She looked straight up
the giant building, to see the windows open, with the security cameras
staring at the two of them. She smiled broadly and waved both her hands.
“The girl is waving now.” Said the Hand agent, staring at the
giant screen in the security room. “She may be trying to distract our
agents. I think we should detach a group to go and remove them from public
and . . .”
“No.” Phillip said, as he stood in the room. He glanced down at
the twelve desks where the security personnel worked diligently. He looked
back up at the monitor. “No, just leave them alone. If they come into
the building, treat them like the usual lost idiots. I don’t want an
engagement today.” He looked at his sub-ordinate. “Understand?”
“Yes sir.”
“Rachel Montoya.” Sydney said, as she looked at the sidewalk
still. Crouching down before her, Everett seemed to be going over the
concrete slab with a fine-tooth comb. “Remember her?”
“Can’t say I do.” Everett said, his attention only
half-devoted to Sydney and her conversation. “Was she from high
school?” He asked after a moment.
“Yeah.” Sydney said. “The little chick. Tough as nails,
though.”
“Sorry.” Everett said, shaking his head. “The
‘Tough-As-Nails’ award goes to Jericho Kingston. That guy was just
crazy. In a fight, he could throw himself around like a Chinese acrobat
with an inner ear infection.”
“That’s true, but Rachel,” Sydney said. “She was something
else.” The female knight looked thoughtfully at Everett. “Rach and
Jericho never actually met until college, did they?”
“Don’t know.” Everett shrugged, bending painfully over to
stare at the pavement not five inches from his face. “After high school,
I was too-engrossed with the Marines. I never really gave college much
thought. Not until I met Edgar, anyway.”
“I know I introduced Rachel to Jericho at some point, but I
don’t think they ever got to know each other until college.” Sydney
went on. “Kind of a pity.” She thought aloud. “I wonder if they’re
still together?”
“Doubt it.” Everett said, tactlessly.
“Why’s that?” Sydney asked, looking down at the black knight.
“Near as we can tell, Jericho’s become megalomaniacal.”
Everett answered with reservation. “And that’s putting it politely.”
“I’m worried about Ruwani.” Malcolm said, as he stood with
Marilyn. The two stood on the edge of the auxiliary soccer field, watching
as Brian and Alan did some light sparring. “I think she’s a bit
depressed right now.” Malcolm continued.
Alan led into Brian’s defense with a quick jab, but Brian barely
moved his arms to simply take the punch to his thick, meaty forearms. As
Alan tried to retreat, though, Brian swung forward, grabbing Alan’s
punching arm. With a fast yank, he yanked the spindly guitarist towards
him.
“You think Brian looks like Walter, don’t you?” Marilyn
asked, turning to Malcolm. The president of the World Alliance seemed to
barely noticed her gaze, but he turned to her also. He nodded.
Brian swung at Alan’s head with a heft vertical hook. Alan ducked
under the punch and threw a quick cross at Brian’s exposed midsection.
The rubbery area took the blow with seemingly no affect. Alan retreated
quickly, his face mixed between awe and worry.
“Walter was really . . .” Malcolm started to say, as he looked
at Marilyn. “And the last thing Ruwani needs is to be reminded of all of
that.”
Brian stepped in quickly, throwing a surprisingly quick snap kick
at Alan. Alan parried the kick, but wasn’t able to move out of the way
of the punch that followed up. Brian lunged forward, slamming his maul of
a fist into Alan’s slender chest, knocking the guitarist into the air
and sending him off his feet.
“I don’t know.” Everett said, as the two slowly walked over
the grassy field, heading back to the parking lot of the Solaritec
corporate office. “I just, you know.” He looked up, then over to
Sydney. “At times, I think actually uniting the knights in this city
might have been a really bad idea.”
“Well, I think that’s what made this whole escapade so
dangerous.” Sydney said, glancing back at the corporate park. “With it
being a member of a knight’s group, rather than just a random knight,
that’s what made it all the more ‘prominent’.”
“I know.” Everett nodded.
“Hey.” She said, stepping to her right, bumping playfully into
Everett. “Don’t beat yourself up over this, Ev.”
“How can I not?” He asked. “Because of me, Armand nearly
started a war. Because of me, one of my friends, my pupil, got stabbed
through his chest. Because of me, another one of my . . . well, Morgan’s
not really a friend any more. But anyway. Because of me, he’s now even
more estranged from the community that he’s been a part of since he was
in elementary school.”
“Well, that was his own fault, Ev.” Sydney said. “Sorry to
sound mean, but Morgan’s a big boy. He left the knights on his own free
will and he fought Armand of his own free will. It was his choosing to do
all of this. You aren’t responsible.”
“Yeah.” Everett agreed. “And he might have saved the knights
from a war in doing so.”
“That’s debatable.” Sydney said. “The knights aren't nearly
as excitable as Edgar would paint them to be. Look at the boys down in
Atlanta.” She said, gesturing with her hand. “They’re a pretty
rough-and-tumble bunch, yeah, but they know how to behave. If they heard
about Armand getting messed up by the Brotherhood, yeah they’d be ready
to fight, but they’d come up here and deal with this branch. But even
before that, they’d start asking questions about why he came here and
all that.”
“That’s good to know.” Everett sighed a bit. “That’s
actually a big relief.”
“But, back to your question about whether you did the right thing
in forming an official knights group,” Sydney said, coming to the front
of Everett’s car. “I think you did.” “You don’t know about .
. .” Everett started to say. “The attempted coup?”
Sydney asked. “Of course I do. I’ve been a knight longer than you have
Everett. I’ve heard all the stories and I know guys like Edgar. In the
Georgia community, we called them ‘Historians’. They can paint a scary
story. But when it comes down to it, we can’t be afraid of the
government. We can’t be afraid of ‘Big Brother’ or anyone else.”
“You might be right.” Everett said, nodding his head as he
thought. He headed over to the passenger door and opened it for Sydney.
The blonde girl came to the door and stood close to Everett. “I,
for one, think you did the right think. I think the time is right for
someone to lead the knights into the new millennium.”
“Whoa.” Everett said, waving his hands as he stepped back from
Sydney. “I am not talking about that kind of a thing.”
“Why not?” She asked. “Why shouldn’t you be the next
Arthur?” She sat down in the car.
Everett closed the door for her, but stayed standing at the side of
the car for a moment, a thoughtful look on his face. He shook his head and
headed around the back of the car. He stopped again. He looked into the
car, at the girl who sat inside. He smiled, almost laughing. Then he kept
walking.
He stopped again by his door. |